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Heritage Lake Campground Family Day 2012 I believe turned out to be a fun day enjoyed by many of the young & the young at heart! We had a lot of campers participate in Wacky Family Olympics (inaugural). There was much work to do to get everything ready Saturday morning for all the events & festivities for the day.

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We (the Frys) first participated in a Wacky Family Olympics at Wolfe’s Campground, Americus, IN, where we seasonal camped prior to Heritage Lake. But, I’m no stranger to wacky family games. It used to be a tradition every summer for my Mom’s side of the family to get together once a year & each family compete in wacky events. We did lots of stuff. One of my favorites was balloon shaving. Usually we went to my Aunt & Uncle’s private gravel pit in Greenfield, IN.

As for these games, we kind of made up our own rules & even had to bend or create as the day went along (culprit…Dizzy Relay…so sorry you fell!!). It went like this…..prior, we had sign up boards at the Shelter House for ten events. The only event set was obstacle course, so it would be free to play on the rest of the day, the slide would be cooler in the morning for competition. We would then just call the next game as the mood/temperature would regulate, & we were flying by the seat of our pants being the inaugural. Going with the “Olympics”, we kept the GOLD, SILVER & BRONZE format. Each event would have a 1st place scoring 5 points, 2nd place scoring 3 points & 3rd place scoring 1 point. After the last event, we’d tally up the points & have our winners. We had ten teams that competed in various events of the ten events scheduled. A few families competed in all the events, some competed until it was time to cool off at the lake. We lost about 4 teams to the heat & SWIMMING! But, the ones that stayed & competed through out the day didn’t really mind that there were less teams…takes LESS TIME to finish out the games.

The inflatable obstacle course was up & ready to go by 9:30am. We decided to kick off our ten event Olympic competition with the obstacle course at 10am. Two teams of four competed against each other for the top three times to place & score. Competing we had the Laffins (4 of 5 teenagers from Lot 5) course time: 1.07mn.-FIRST, the Eagles (4 boys under 12) course time: 1.09mn.-SECOND, the Drunks (4 Dads) course time: 1.21mn.-THIRD, the Triple X (4 kids under 14, Lot 5) course time: 1.22.0mn., the Packers (4 adults, Lot G) course time: 1.22.4mn., the Martins (2 adults, 2 kids Lot 10) course time: 1.43mn., the McCalls (3 generations! 2 adults, 2 kids Lot 34) course time: 2.03mn., the Knuckle Heads (family from Lot 16, 3 adults, 1 kid) course time: 2.08mn., the Blues (family from Lot 5) course time 2.10mn., the Wolves (4 kids under 5, Lot G) course time: 2.59mn. Let’s just say the kids were usually quicker than the adults, climbing up the slide & trying to get situated to slide down took some maneuvering.

We had a short break of about 15-20mns. Then we proceeded to Dizzy Relay. Two teams of four competed against each other for the top three times to place & score. Two members of each team stood about 25ft across from each other, two teams racing for best times. First players race to bat, place bat end on forehead then other end on ground (bending over) circle around the bat 7 times then, carrying bat, race to the other side to hand off to next player, repeating until each team finished. The Blues time: 1.13mn. FIRST, the Packers time: 1.15mn. SECOND, the Knuckle Heads time: 1.20.2mn. THIRD, the Triple X time: 1.20.5mn., the Laffins time: 1.20.8mn., the Martins time 1.21.3mn., the Drunks time: 1.21.6mn., the Eagles time: 1.29.6mn. Boy the times between 2nd, 3rd & 4th were within tenths of seconds! (Another good use of the smartphones!!! stopwatch 🙂 We did however have a little trouble with the event. A member of the Blues team was dizzy from spinning & running, lost her balance & fell causing the race to stop. So under the circumstances we made an executive decision (our right being the administrators of the “games”..lol). We would use 2 members from each of the teams (Blue & Triple X) time each team & double to make it as if 4 participated.

After another break of about 15mns., we were on to event #3…Dressed W/No Place to Go. Two teams of four competed against each other for the top three times to place & score. Two members of each team stood about 16ft across from each other, two teams racing for times. Each team was given a laundry basket with 2 button shirts, 1 polo or 1 tee, 1 long sleeve sweater, 1 bra, 2 pairs of shorts, 1 pair pajama pants, 2 neck ties & 1 large pair of sunglasses. At go, the first players would have to put all the clothes on. Button shirts had to have at least 2 buttons buttoned! Ties had to be tied. Legs & sleeves were suppose to be on but seems as though some participants didn’t like following the rules & made up their own (Packers were penalized). After players are dressed, they ran across to their team mate, stripped off their clothes, unbutton, untie (some not realizing they were stripping one layer too many…thanks for the “show”!) Let’s see how they did. The Packers time 7.10.7mns. -FIRST (that even included 75 seconds of penalty), the McCalls time 7.46.5mns -SECOND, the Knuckle Heads time 9.16.8mns. -THIRD, the Laffins time 9.17.1mns…really close!, the Drunks time 10.39.3mns., the Triple X time 11.02.3mns., the Martins time 12.11.4mns.

Next on the docket is event#4 with out delay, Brain Freeze! This event was unlimited players from all teams…but you couldn’t be older than 12, sorry Parent & Grandparents. Such a fitting event for such an extremely HOT day! The kids all loved it. I think it was a little hard for some more than others. We had contestants as young as 2 and up to 12. We took 3 -6′ tables end to end & the edges where filled about 70% by contestants. The remaining 30% made up of voluntary adults to “cut the tops & keep every contestant refilled. Rules being you must eat all the “frozen” out of each pop, the juice didn’t matter. It was timed for 3 mns. Unfortunately I only recorded the top 4 winners. Sorry to those of you that braved the freeze without recognition, but hope you enjoyed the treat. Zack of team Martin -FIRST, managed to chomp down 4 1/2 freezer pops (Zack was awarded later a honorary winning freezer pop & large pack of glow sticks for his achievement), Wyatt , of team Knuckle Heads & team Eagles-SECOND, made 4 freezer pops disappear. Jacob of team Eagles -THIRD consumed 3 freezer pops. We had way too many freezer pops left so the surplus was enjoyed by everyone wanting a little cool break from the HOT day.

We have a great Shelter House relatively centered in the campgrounds. We tried to adapt most of the events to take advantage of the shade & abundant seating. And for the most part it wasn’t too bad. Shoot, I think some of us actually got to meet & talk w/some of our fellow campers for the first time.

With a quick clean up completed (hosing off the tables & picking up freezer pop trash), we gathered teams & asked for each team participating please pick two of your best corn hole players for the 5th event…Hole in One. Each team got ten corn hole bags to be split between two team mates. Object…get in all 10! The three highest scoring teams place & score. We had to have a tie breaker, only one player (of two that threw) received 5 more throws. Here’s how it scored: the Packers scored 5 (2 + 3) -FIRST, the Knuckle Heads scored 3+ (3 + 0 + tie breaker 1) “Great Job Wyatt!, Mikey sucked!” -SECOND. The McCalls scored 3+ (0 + 3 + tie breaker 0)…sorry McCalls -THIRD. The Drunks scored 2 (0 + 2), the Laffins scored 0, the Triple X scored 0, the Eagles scored 0.

We met back at the basketball goals for Shoot out @ the Square, the 6th event. Each team had 4 players, kids &/or adults, any combination. Twelve and under were to use the kids goal, thirteen plus used the standard goal. Each player got 5 balls at designated distance. Three highest scoring teams placed. Triple X (4 kids) scored 11 out of 20 for FIRST, the Knuckle Heads scored 10 out of 20 + tie breaker points of 7 out of 10 (from two selected players) -SECOND, the McCalls scored 10 our of 20 plus tie breaker points of 2 out of 10 (from two selected players) for THIRD, the Drunks scored 8 out of 20 and the Laffins (the teenagers! & most of the points came from the petite little lady that played on their team!) scored 8 out of 20, you go girl!

It was refreshing to get out of the blazing sun & back under the Shelter House for our 7th event….Sticky Team Relay. This event was a real challenge! The HOT temps didn’t help. Teams of 4 players were lined up. Each player was given a toothpick. The first player was given a large marshmellow. The object was to pass the marshmellow to the next player without using any hands. First three teams to reach the 4th player will place & score. If you drop the marshmellow, you will have to start all over again. And the winners were: the Laffins -FIRST, the McCalls -SECOND, the Eagles -THIRD, the Little People, the Knuckle Heads, the Triple X teams were struggling, the game was called to get on with next event. Personally I think there was just too much giggling going on for some….right ladies?!

The 8th event was for the young & young at heart…Jumping Ja-Who-So-Fat. (Remember that “ole sayin”? I spelled it sounds?)Every team selected 2 players to compete for the most completed jumps in 1 minute. Unfortunately, we had to step out into the sun since the ropes wouldn’t clear the rafters of the Shelter House. The jumps were: the Laffins had 229 (120+109) -FIRST, the McCalls had 140 (33+107) -SECOND, the Knuckle Heads had 98 (38+60) –THIRD, the Little Folks had 73 (42+31), the Eagles had 59 (43+16).

For the 9th event….Laundry Day. Two teams of four competed against each other for the top three times to place & score. Teams were given a laundry basket filled with very wet laundry to run about 20 ft. to a clothes line to hang & run back with the laundry basket. The 2nd player then runs w/empty basket, down to clothes line & removes clothes placing laundry & clothes pins in basket. This continued until all four players had gone. The teams were instructed they MUST have all their clothes pins (25) at the end of their run to qualify their time. Funny thing most of the contestants were MEN! Guys, thanks for being such great sports!! Times: the Laffins time 2.01.2mns. -FIRST, the Drunks time 2.13.7mns. -SECOND, the McCalls time 2.26.6mns. -THIRD, the Little People time 2.32.54mns., the Knuckle Heads time 2.55.8mns., the Triple X time 3.40.7mns. Ladies I’m thinking either these men have had “laundry” practice at home or maybe they need to help w/”laundry” since their so good at it!!!

Our final event for the inaugural WACKY FAMILY OLYMPICS 2012….#10, Pick Your Seat! Musical chairs w/a twist…each player must supply their own lawn chair. Each team selected two players. The team’s lawn chairs were separated & set up in circle facing out. Players (team mates separated) were to stay in line, no passing until the music stopped then…find YOUR chair. Last player seated is out & their chair eliminated. Best standings or I guess in this case…best “seatings” were: the LittlePeople -FIRST, the McCalls -SECOND, the Laffins – THIRD. I have to share something that the Laffin guys (teenagers) did that was such a sweet gesture. They were left w/many of the small kids competing so they made sure they lost by allowing the little ones to sit down before they did so the little kids could continue. Thanks guys!

The Hot Dog Awards Banquet would start at 5pm, at the Shelter House. The campground supplied the dogs, buns, condiments & service ware. Each team wanting to attend was to bring a covered dish or dessert, their own beverages. We had a lot of appetites show up with so many yummy contributions. Thanks everyone for participating not only in the games over the course of the HOT exhausting day, but the Awards potluck feast as well! We received a lot of compliments, David & I, for doing all this & multiple expressions of great fun that was had by many! It was a lot of work & preparation, exhausting & FUN!!! Oh & forgot…HOT!!! Thanks to all of you for not making all our efforts in vain!

OH…and the winners are:

The Laffins with 21 total points scored for the GOLD!

The McCallswith 15 total points scored for the SILVER!

The Packers with 13 total points scored for the BRONZE!

Remaining team standings: The Knuckle Heads with 12 total points scored. The Blue with 5 total points scored. The Eagles with 5 total points scored. The Little People with 5 total points scored. The Martins with 5 total points scored. The Triple X with 5 total points scored. The Drunks with 4 total points scored.

Thanks again everyone that competed, assisted, supplied, observed & just support the fun filled day!

The 15th and Hulman Band

After the Hot Dog Awards Banquet, we cleaned up the Shelter House for the next act…the Band “15th & Hulman”.They started playing at 8pm until 11pm. The group has performed here at the campgrounds prior times before. Everyone attending seemed to enjoy themselves from the youngest to the oldest. Some were fortunate to be able to sit at their campsites & take in the entertainment w/out leaving the comforts of home.

Others decided to venture to the lake to watch the annual Fireworks over Heritage Lake. It took them a while to get started but they were very pretty once they got the show started.

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July holiday weekend celebration here at Heritage Lake Campgrounds!!!